BOSTON — Roseann Sdoia still thinks about how all the shrapnel flew. How some people were hit and some weren't, all inches away from one another. She would love to understand it because not a day has gone by since the Boston Marathon bombings when she hasn't had to cope with the aftermath.

More than two months later, the 45-year-old amputee is learning how to walk on the artificial limb that has replaced part of her right leg after an above-the-knee amputation.

The physical therapy is something other marathon amputees have either already undergone or will experience in the future. While some bombing survivors have had their artificial limbs for a while, others have yet to get to the stage Sdoia has reached.

"In all honesty, do I wish I had it? Of course, no," Sdoia said on a recent afternoon after physical therapy. "But I think I like it better with the leg on than without the leg. Looking in the mirror, yeah, it's difficult. And if anybody says it isn't, they're lying."

On April 15, she saw a flash of light at her feet while watching for a friend to pass her on Boylston Street on the way to the race's finish line. Then she heard a popping noise and realized it was too late to run away.

Sdoia didn't want anyone to push her in a wheelchair or to think too much about the bombers who changed her life and ended three others. As time passed, she found her emotions weren't as raw as in the beginning. But being up on two legs again has brought some strong feelings bubbling to the surface.

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The resident of Boston's North End spent about a week at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital recently for therapy aimed at getting her accustomed to her new prosthetic. Part of that meant time looking in the mirror, studying her gait and trying to accept a new image that can bring a few tears when she talks about it.

In mid-May, she left Spaulding on crutches and returned home for the first time, vowing to move forward and take one day of her recovery at a time.

While she still has questions about what happened that day, she said she thinks of herself as the same person who is just starting another chapter of life.

"I don't think it's changed me in any fashion. I just continue to be who I am," she said. "Some people think it's inspiring. I think that's kind of funny."

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